Nightmares
by RogueRavenclaw99
Summary: Samantha Bryne is no stranger to nightmares. But she has always faced them alone her entire life. What happens when soemone finally helps her feel better about everything that has happened?


**Hello everybody! I just finished writing my long time** _**Gears of War**_ **story **_**Human**_**, and I thought I should try another one shot. At least with one-shots, you don't have to worry about finishing them. Anyways, this one is about Sam and Baird, because I love reading cute little stories about them and decided I should try to make my own. Anyways, onto the story! **

Samantha Byrne shifted in her plush bed in the hotel on Azura, having another night of fitful sleep. She hadn't had a decent sleep since she was a little girl, before she became a Gear.

She shot up in her bed with a gasp. A familiar voice asked, "What the hell is wrong with you Byrne?!"

Sam blinked her eyes and saw that Damon Baird was in front of her bed, with a pistol aimed at his stomach. Sam pieced together that she must have grabbed the gun from under her pillow and asked him, "What are you doing in here?"

"I heard someone talking in here. I came to check it out. Can you please move the gun?"

Sam moved the gun away from his stomach and put it back under her pillow, and looked at the mechanic. "You were worried about me?" she asked.

Baird sat down on the bed, and Sam said, "I didn't invite you. Isn't there some machine somewhere that needs repairing, or someone else you haven't pissed off today?"

"Look, I came in here and you were screaming like a little girl…"

"Excuse me?"

"Just listen. I wanted to make sure you were okay, alright?"

"Oh, so you never cared about anyone in your life and you just suddenly move in here to be my hero because I'm having a bloody nightmare?"

Baird realized he wasn't going to get anywhere with this approach and asked her much more gently, "You want to talk about your nightmare?"

"Why the hell does it concern you?"

"Look, I'm trying to not be an asshole for once, so give me a break."

Sam stared up at him, eyes wide with curiosity. "You're really trying?" she asked him.

"Yes I am. So, what happened?"

Sam took a deep breath before trying to remember exactly what had made her pull a gun on Baird. "We were back in Mercy again."

"Oh god," Baird said under his breath, knowing what happened in Mercy with Dom.

"The Lambent were all circling us again, but this time, there were some Locust closing in too. Dom drove himself into the fuel tankard again, but nothing happened. The Locust and Lambent were still circling around us, and Dom had died for nothing.

"Eventually, we all ran out of ammo, and I watched as, one by one, everybody was killed. First Jace, then Dizzy, Marcus, and finally Anya. I tried to fend them off as well as I could, but they eventually cornered me and then I woke up."

Baird was silent for a minute, and Sam said, "Wow Blondie. This is the longest I've ever gone without hearing you run your mouth."

"I miss him too Byrne."

Sam stared at him, and she could feel her jaw slack slightly at the confession from Baird. Damon Baird of all people just confessed to her that he indeed missed Dom.

Sam finally found her words and asked, "How long did you hear? Was I really that loud?" She blushed slightly, feeling embarrassed. Had she woken up the whole floor? One dream usually couldn't do that to her, but there are some exceptions.

"It wasn't that bad really. I was just walking by your room and thought I heard you crying. I was going to wake you up." Baird chuckled softly and looked at her. "Until you tried to shoot me."

Sam smiled a bit, and told him, "You're lucky I woke up before I pulled the trigger."

"I'm surprised you still didn't."

Baird moved to leave, but, despite every one of her instincts telling her not to, Sam grabbed Baird's hand. "Wait," she said. "Would you...I mean, I know it's late, but I'm probably not going to sleep anytime soon. Would you stay with me?"

Baird turned to face her, his face unreadable. For a moment, she felt like asking this question was a mistake. She had asked Damon Baird, the cynical smart-ass bastard who loved to make people pissed at him, to stay with her to help her sleep. She let go of his hand, and was shocked to see he still held on to her.

He looked at her and struggled to find the words, "Sam, I don't know...I mean I can't...er...I'm not good at this." He shook his head, hesitant to reveal that he wasn't perfect at everything.

"Nobody is good at everything Blondie," Sam said, patting the spot on the bed next to her.

Baird sat down and looked at Sam. She looked so delicate and fragile, a side to her he had never seen before on the battlefield. But now that the war was finally over, no one would ever be the same. Baird had always taken for granted the fact that sleep came so naturally to him, despite knowing that most Gears would have nightmares for a long time.

Baird wished he knew exactly what to say to Sam to give her the peaceful night sleep he had been having for several years now, but the words failed him.

"At least I'm good at sleeping," Baird told her, the sarcasm that filled his mind spilling out again.

Sam smiled at him and closed her eyes. "Of course you are," she said sleepily.

* * *

As the sun went up the next morning, Sam blinked the sleep out of her eyes and heard grumbling. She felt arms wrapped around her, one around her waist and the other under her head. "Shit," she said to herself. "Baird, get up!"

She shoved Baird in the side and his eyes popped open as he woke up. He looked around for something glowing or for his lancer, then looked at questioningly. "What happened?" he asked her.

"This happened!" Sam shouted, pointing to both of them. "This is bloody fantastic! You better move, Blondie, before people see you and think we spent the night together."

"To be fair, though, Sam, we kind of did," Baird told her with his signature smirk creeping its way onto his lips.

"You know what I meant you asshole! I don't want people thinking we were having sex all night."

"Because that would be the worst thing ever, right?" Baird would have been hurt if he wasn't so amused with how Sam was acting.

"Fine, stay! We can go into the dining hall together and you can make an announcement!"

"You think I want people to know I was in here with you all night?"

"And just what the HELL was that supposed to mean?!"

"I don't want people thinking I've gone soft." Seeing Sam trying not to laugh, he said, "Wrong choice of words. I don't want people to find out what I did for you last night because it'll ruin my hard work. I've got an image to maintain you know."

Sam softened a bit and said, "You weren't so careful about that image last night." She saw him shift in the bed and realized just what she said. "I'm sorry. I do appreciate what you did last night."

"Don't worry Sam. I'll sneak out and nobody will know anything." Baird then smirked at her and got out of bed and went into the bathroom, shutting the door.

Sam practically jumped out of her bed when she heard a knock on the door to her room. She moved towards the door as quick as she could before Baird poked his head out to see who it was.

She opened the door to see Anya standing there with two cups of coffee in her hands. "Hey Sam," she said happily. "I brought you some coffee. You ready to start cleaning?"

"Yeah, just give me a minute," Sam said. "I got a late start." She glanced back at the bathroom and said, "I'll meet you in the lobby."

"Hey Sam, do you have any towels in here?" Baird asked, poking his head out of the bathroom. "I was washing my face and…" Baird trailed off as he saw Anya standing in the doorway with her eyes wide and jaw dropped. "Oh, hey...Anya. I just came by to-"

"Don't mind me," Anya said, attempting and failing to try not to smile. "Sam, I'll meet you downstairs. Take your time."

"Anya, I...oh bloody hell. Fine." Sam pushed the door shut but not before hearing the small giggle come from the Lieutenant.

"What the hell was that?!" Sam yelled at Baird. "You didn't bloody hear us talking?!"

"Sorry, wasn't listening," Baird told her. "Besides, it's just Anya, right? You can set her straight. Unless you secretly want her to think something happened."

"What the hell does _that_ mean?!"

"I'm just saying, you didn't exactly jump at the chance to tell her what really happened. And you were the one who asked me to stay the night."

"Oh, so you think that I want people to associate me with you?! You're not the only one with an image you know!"

"Pretty sure that whatever 'image' you think you have is basically just looking like you're going to rip everybody's balls off."

"Don't let me start with you!"

"You couldn't rip my balls off even if you tried!"

"Get the hell out!" Sam yelled at him, throwing a pillow at him. Baird turned away so that the pillow didn't hit him in the face, but it instead hit him in the back of the head.

"I'm leaving! Jesus Christ!"

Baird then stormed out of the room and slammed the door. Sam sat on her bed and just stared at the door, unable to think of anything. She briefly considered calling Baird back, but didn't due to the fact she had no idea what to say to him.

Rather than sit on her bed and cry, though, Sam simply got up and started getting dressed to meet Anya, unable to think of what she would say to Baird if she saw him later that day.

* * *

An hour later, Sam had started cleaning up rooms and looking for supplies with Anya. They had been doing this in silence up until that point, until Anya finally said, "I'm glad we're finding so many clothes for the women, but I don't think anything here will fit the men."

"It would probably help if Gears were the size of normal people instead of massive trees."

"Tell me about it. It's almost impossible to find clothes that fit Marcus."

Sam chuckled at this, and Anya said, "By the way, do you want to talk about the big elephant that was in your room?"

"Oh bloody hell," Sam said. "Trust me Anya, it's not what you think."

"Then what happened exactly?"

"I was having a nightmare last night and Baird came in to comfort me."

Anya could hardly believe the words and asked, "Baird?"

"Yup."

"Damon Baird? Blonde? Kind of an asshole? Never missed the chance to piss someone off? That Baird?"

"The exact same one. Anyways, I woke up and he shouted because I had a pistol aimed at his stomach. Old habits, right? We talked, and eventually we both ended up asleep...in my bed."

Anya's eyes became wide, not believing this was the same Baird as the one she knew. "He also stayed after you left," Sam continued. "But he started to act like the ass that he is and I threw a pillow at him."

Anya chuckled a bit but then stopped when she noticed how hurt Sam looked. "Are you alright?"

"I'm not sure. He acts like an ass to everybody, and I normally just take it. But this time, it kind of hurt me when he acted like that."

Anya right about what her friend was saying and said, "I think you might be offended because you want something more from him."

"I kind of did when he was in my room last night. But it'll never happen. He's Baird. He's too much of an asshole to let anyone he near him."

"What if you told him how you feel?"

"That'll go bloody fantastic. He'll just laugh at me and tell me to go fuck myself. Can we just drop the subject and get back to cleaning?"

Anya nodded and continued cleaning, thinking about what Sam should do with Baird.

* * *

Meanwhile, Baird was sitting at the bar in the hotel, nursing a beer that Dizzy had served him. He heard someone moving towards him and continued sipping his drink, not wanting to be seen by that person.

"Hey baby," Augustus Cole said, coming up behind Baird and slapping him on the back. "What you doing here?"

"What the hell does it look like I'm doing? I'm drinking a goddamn beer!"

"Calm yourself baby. I'm just wondering what you're doing here and not in that garage that we found? I normally can't find you anywhere but the garage and your bedroom."

"Can't a guy just decide to have a drink in peace?"

"They sure can, but most people don't drink in the morning. Most people decide to drink later in the day."

"Well I ain't most people, alright?! Now, please just leave me alone."

Cole looked over at Dizzy and asked, "Can I have a minute with Baird?"

"As long as you two promise to not drink my entire storage," Dizzy said, adjusting the cowboy hat on his head.

Cole chuckled and said, "No problem Dizzy."

Once Dizzy was out of earshot, Cole turned towards Baird and asked, "What's really on your brain?"

"I don't want to friggin talk about it, alright?"

"Baby, you know that answer doesn't work with the Cole Train."

"Fine. I tried to be nice to someone and ended up pissing them off even more."

"Would this someone happen to be a brunette Kashkuri woman?"

"How the hell did you know?!"

"Lucky guess." When Baird looked at him skeptically, Cole laughed and said, "I figured it out when I went to your room this morning and you weren't there. What happened?"

"I walked by Sam's room last night and heard crying, so I went to see what was up. Next thing I know, I have a pistol aimed at my stomach and a really pissed off Byrne."

This got a laugh out of Cole, and Baird continued. "After she lowered her gun, I asked her about what she dreamt about. She told me exactly what happened, and then asked me to stay with her."

"Did anything happen?"

"God no! I woke up in her room because she was shoving me and she told me to get lost before people thought something did happen. She also threw a pillow at me."

"Is that why you're drinking at 9:30 in the morning?"

"I don't know Cole. I mean, I'm used to her being an ass to me. I'm usually one back. But today, it felt different. It actually kind of stung when she insulted me."

Cole considered the predicament and asked, "You think it stung because you treated her good?"

"Absolutely. But what does that mean?"

"I think it means that you might have feelings for her."

Baird choked on his beer and said, "Are you insane? There is no way in hell that I have any feeling besides pissed off towards Sam Byrne."

"Just think about it baby. How did you feel about her last night?"

"I felt bad for her. I'm one if the only people left on the friggin planet who can sleep through the night without getting nightmares, and I felt bad to see Sam having some of her own."

"That's what it feels like to care about someone."

"You're friggin insane. There is no way I care about Samantha Byrne."

Cole nodded his head and asked, "Would you feel bad if you knew that I get those nightmares sometimes too?"

"Of course I would because you're my friend who I've known for years!"

"Think about how you feel now. Is that how you feel about Sam having nightmares?"

Baird thought about it for a minute and said, "Holy crap. I guess I do care about Sam."

Cole nodded his head and asked, "Now, are you going to apologize for how you acted last night?"

"Even if I did, she wouldn't accept it. She'd think I'm just being an ass like normal."

"Whatever you say Damon baby. Just think about how you feel for a minute."

Cole then got up and walked away, leaving Baird alone in the bar with his beer and his thoughts. He then drank the beer as quickly as he could, slamming the mug on the bar.

He then got up and left as well.

* * *

For the rest of the day, Sam tried to avoid Baird, but eventually, she got near his garage and couldn't resist peeking in.

Once she was in earshot, she heard the sound of power tools whirring and knew he was in there. She walked in and saw Baird's feet poking out from underneath a Packhorse, and quietly chuckled.

"Working hard there Blondie?" Sam asked.

Baird jumped and hit his head on the bottom of the Packhorse, swearing loudly. "Son of a bitch!" he exclaimed, wheeling away from the Packhorse and rubbing his head.

He sat up and pulled his goggles away from his eyes and looked at Sam. "What the hell do you want?" he asked her, clearly irritated.

"Hello to you too Sunshine," she replied sarcastically. "So, what are you working on exactly?"

Baird looked at her and saw she was genuinely interested in his work, so he smirked his typical Baird smirk. "Since all the Imulsion is gone thanks to that bomb, I'm trying to figure out how to switch the fuel in this thing. We survived before Imuslion, and we can figure out how to survive now that it's gone."

Sam nodded, but Baird noticed her mind was clearly somewhere else. "Look, Sam, I'm sorry," he told her.

Sam stared at him, dumbfounded that he actually apologized. "I'm sorry for how I acted this morning," he continued. "I know I was being a complete and total ass and you didn't deserve it."

"How is this different from how you normally act?" Sam asked skeptically.

"Just let me friggin finish, alright? Anyways, I'm sorry."

Sam softened a bit, touched that he would even consider apologizing to her. "Nothing was hurt Blondie," she told him. "And for what it's worth, thank you for last night. I really needed it. I appreciate it alot, so thank you."

They both stared at each other for a minute, shifting awkwardly, until Sam finally said, "Screw it," as she leaned in and kissed Baird.

She wrapped her arms around his waist, and he closed his eyes as he wrapped his arms around her head, pulling her in deeper.

Once they finally pulled apart, Baird chuckled at her and rubbed the back of his head. "Want to continue this in my room?" Baird asked her.

Sam chuckled and nodded, pulling him in for one more deep and passionate kiss.

THE END

**I personally loved to write this story. I thought it was pretty decently written, and I've been wanting to tackle this type of story for quite some time. I've always loved the Baird x Sam relationship, and based on** _**Gears of War 4**_**, they do end up together. I've read a lot of Baird x Sam stories, and I think my attempt to write one of my own turned out pretty good. Thanks for reading, and enjoying my story.**


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